Plough in Autumn - Proverbs 20:4
The sluggard does not plough in the autumn;
He will seek at harvest and have nothing. [Pr 20:4]
I want to talk about ploughing in autumn. Strange as that might seem. I was once chatting with a student who was doing a Church Planting assignment – and she had talked someone whom she had met who said he was not a church planter but a church plougher. Having read Pr 20:4 I think I know what he meant. It was warning against farmers of being lazy. The harvest from the previous year is in and the barns are full. The days are getting colder – it is much too easy to stay inside on those cold autumn days. I can still feel the cold, frosty and damp coming up through my boots outside on Autumn days on my parents’ farm in England! And I also remember the pleasure and temptation to stay inside by the log fire in that season. But the ploughing needs to be done. Land ploughed in autumn does much better than that left until the spring and ploughed and sown in a hurry at the last minute.
But I believe there is a spiritual principle here for us as well - which is why this saying has been preserved in the Book of Proverbs. It was not written to us, but is was written for us.
But spiritual laziness is as much a problem in Christian work as laziness in farming is. We Christian workers are called to plough in autumn.
The field needs to be ploughed. This is spiritual preparation of all kinds which need to be done before you sow and ultimately reap in Christian ministry. Ploughing can be tedious. It’s often done at a cold time of the year. It is often done on your own and everyone criticises you because the furrows are not perfectly straight or at the right depth etc., or you’re getting through too much fuel on the tractor. Although no-one wants to plough, everyone wants to drive the big shiny combine harvester in the summer sunshine with a very visible and valuable end product.
This is why in missions, and Christian work, everyone wants to get out immediately and do everything. You can go and dig a well in on a Pacific island for 2 weeks and call it missions and get the thanks of a village who might not have even asked for it. But they could have used the money you spent on air fares much better if you had just sent them a cheque.
But no-one wants to plough day after day in the autumn cold. I do believe that studying here at Bible college is part of ploughing your field in autumn. Ploughing in autumn involves prayer. Ploughing in autumn involves learning how to lead a small group properly. Ploughing in autumn involves developing regular personal devotions. Ploughing in autumn involves the build up of the rhythm of self-discipline in your life that you can take anywhere in the world with you. And I am sure there are many other things involved in ploughing in autumn.
Very few people seem to be ploughing in our churches – but they all want to reap, and prophesy about reaping and do seminars on reaping. But few are ploughing in autumn. I am concerned for the Christian future of New Zealand as we and all our sister colleges here report ever diminishing numbers of New Zealanders doing full ministry training. What the theological state of the country will be in 20 years’ time I dread to think! If we don’t watch out we will have heretical churches with no harvest because:
The sluggard does not plough in the autumn;
he will seek at harvest and have nothing. [Pr 20:4]
But the most important ploughing is the spiritual labour after this college. The need to cover all things in prayer. The need to understand and appreciate the spiritual battles involved in serving God, understanding the hard slog of preaching the gospel to unresponsive people.
And it may just remain your job to be a mere ploughman or ploughwoman. Do we have the humility to be just that? Just because you are not a personal reaper it does not mean we will not share in the blessings of the final harvest.
“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the ploughman should plough in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 1 Cor 9:9-10
I think of the faithful prayer warriors who support us all in different ways. Those who will never leave Taiwan or Korea or USA or Britain but who are quietly ploughing in autumn in prayer so we might reap. I often use the example of Alison who worked for 25 years in the Middle East and during her whole ministry she saw not a single convert from the local Arab population. She and her team were ploughing in autumn for a great harvest among Moslem Arabs in the last days. And it will come.
I have ploughed a field in the past in England. The way to plough a straight and good furrow is to look forward all the time and never look back. I do not know why but as soon as you look behind the furrows go wiggly, possible even leaving gaps.
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62
You have put your hand to the plough, do not look back, continue to plough in autumn!